I google ellipsis & read that is should be preceded by a space, but in an epub that can mean a line break occurring between the last word and the dots.

I don't think that is done in print, so I am wondering how &hellip; should be correctly used in epub e.g. should it always be preceded by &nbsp; - intuitively that feels wrong - or should it just go next to the preceeding word with no space in between

First, different languages have different typographic convetions/traditions, so even though it may be usual to add a space before an ellipsis in English, it is most often wrong in Spanish, for instance.

In English ePubs, I tend to put a normal space before and after an ellipsis, when it is in the middle of a sentence (and by the way, I don't use &hellip; most of the time), and a &nbsp; at the end:

Code:

She would not sleep, she thought; she could last until tomorrow night.&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;. The train wheels clicked in accented rhythm.
"But&nbsp;.&nbsp;.&nbsp;." said Taggart, "but .&nbsp;.&nbsp;. but nobody's ever used it before!"

(in red, the actual ellipsis: .&nbsp;.&nbsp;.)

I don't think it's so wrong to break the line before an ellipsis in the middle of a sentence.

If I need a space in front of the ellipse, I always use the non-breaking space to avoid having the ellipse start a new line. Strictly a personal preference for me ... I have no interest in whether it's typographically correct or not.

When I scan a book, I set the ellipses the way the original text had it. If they were more spaced out in the printed book, they stay spaced out in the ebook, and I've run into that most often with older books.

I've also run into the end of a sentence then followed by an ellipse, which meant 4 periods and no space of course between the last word and the first period of course. And the next ellipse in the same paragraph might have a space before the ellipse started. And I keep both of those the same. All depends on the original for me.

When I scan a book, I set the ellipses the way the original text had it. If they were more spaced out in the printed book, they stay spaced out in the ebook, and I've run into that most often with older books.

I've also run into the end of a sentence then followed by an ellipse, which meant 4 periods and no space of course between the last word and the first period of course. And the next ellipse in the same paragraph might have a space before the ellipse started. And I keep both of those the same. All depends on the original for me.

so when a piece of dialogue "just fizzles out like this...."
there should be a total of 4 dots, not 3? I was not aware of that subtlety. Looks a bit strange now that I have typed it.